Reach Medical Services, a subsidiary of Air Medical Group Holdings, placed an order for five new H125s from Airbus Helicopters, the OEM announced this week at Heli-Expo 2017. The order followed a Rocky Mountain fly-off in Colorado last summer of the Airbus H125 and H130 and Bell 407—all single-engine helicopters. Both Airbus models exceeded flight-envelope expectations, according to the manufacturer, with the H125 edging out its stablemate, which placed second.
“The fly-off proved our intuition was correct,” explained Vicky Spediacci, Reach vice president of operations. “The H125 outperformed all of the similar aircraft in hot-and-high conditions, and it was a clear choice.” The helicopters will primarily serve mountain communities in the western U.S. Reach is headquartered in Santa Rosa, California.
Two H125s are planned for delivery to Reach this June, to be joined by three more in the third quarter. Although Reach has long operated the twin-engine H135, the order represents its first for the H125. The OEM will install the air medical equipment in the aircraft.
Airbus Helicopters assembles the H125 at its plant in Columbus, Mississippi.